LOS ANGELES (AP) — Conservative radio host and Republican kingmaker Rush Limbaugh said he’s been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer.
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Addressing listeners on his program Monday, Limbaugh said will take some days off for further medical tests and to determine treatment.
Limbaugh called himself the “mayor of Realville” in announcing his illness. He’d been experiencing shortness of breath that he initially thought might be heart-related but turned out to be a lung cancer.
“It’s shocking to the industry, and it should be shocking to the political establishment,” said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine, the trade industry publication for talk radio.
Limbaugh’s announcement come at a tumultuous political time, as the conclusion of President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial nears.
He started his first national radio show in 1988 from New York, later relocating to Palm Beach, Florida.
The hyper-partisan broadcaster has dominated talk radio with a raucous, liberal-bashing style that made him one of the most influential voices of American right-wing politics and inspired other conservative broadcasters including Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly.
“Rush you are in our prayers,” Beck tweeted. “We live in a time of modern miracles. Millions are praying you find one.”
On his show, Limbaugh said he intends to work as much as possible. He also said he had focused more “intensely” in the past two weeks on what he called his “deeply personal relationship” with God.
The media figure’s endorsement and friendship is a conservative political treasure. His idol, Ronald Reagan, wrote a letter that Limbaugh read on the air in December 1992 and which sealed his reputation among conservatives: “You’ve become the number one voice for conservatism in our country,” Reagan wrote.
Two years later, Limbaugh would be so widely credited as key to Republicans’ takeover of Congress for the first time in 40 years, he was deemed an honorary member of the new class.
Limbaugh is most famous for hosting The Rush Limbaugh Show, a conservative American talk radio show. The program airs live and consists primarily of Limbaugh’s monologues, based on the news of the day, interspersed with parody ads, phone calls from listeners, conspiracy theories and a variety of running comedy bits.
The Rush Limbaugh Show airs on a network of approximately 590 AM and FM affiliate stations throughout the United States, almost all of which air the program live. During its existence, WRNO broadcast the program on shortwave radio. Limbaugh also hosts his own online Internet streaming audio and video broadcast, through Streamlink. This broadcast is restricted to members of Limbaugh’s “Rush 24/7” service, but can also be heard on some stations’ streaming audio feeds. Premiere Networks, a division of iHeartMedia, the largest U.S. radio station owner, owns distribution rights to the program. The program is not heard on any stations in Canada, although stations along the northern border of the United States give the show coverage in much of southern Canada. The show has never been carried on any satellite radio service, and is one of the few nationally syndicated talk radio programs not to be featured on satellite radio. Limbaugh attributes this decision to a desire to maximize value for his terrestrial radio affiliates.
The Rush Limbaugh Show is unusual among syndicated radio programs in that it is fee-based; that is, radio stations pay iHeartMedia hundreds of thousands of dollars (the exact amount depends on market size) for the rights to carry his show, in addition to giving up 15 minutes of daily ad time for barter advertisements and the Morning Update.
This is terrible, unlike the Soros funded folks like Kathy griffin who wish violence on their opponents we normal people don’t wish bad, even for people who ignore the Constitution and are activists and erev rav people like ruth bader Ginsburg and jerry Nadler and family
Hope he has a Refuah Shelaimah !
Terrible news. Where will we be without the great hater? The man who calls women ‘femanazis’ and John McCain ‘sewage’. The ‘birther’ whose own ancestors killed Yidden in his beloved Deutschland. He’ll be missed by all the kapos! I’ve started sitting shiva already, I’m so upset.
I hope his family can get through this hard times, but I will not shed a tear for this man:
Rush on nicotine:
“There is no conclusive proof that nicotine’s addictive… And the same thing with cigarettes causing emphysema, lung cancer, heart disease.”
Rush on the genocide of American Indians:
“Columbus saved the Indians from themselves.”
Rush on Michael J Fox having parkinsons disease:
“He is exaggerating the effects of the disease. He’s moving all around and shaking and it’s purely an act… This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn’t take his medication or he’s acting.”
Rush on African Americans voting:
“[African Americans] are twelve percent of the population. Who the hell cares?”
Rush on the NFL:
“Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”
Rush on feeding poor children in public school:
“If you feed them, if you feed the children, three square meals a day during the school year, how can you expect them to feed themselves in the summer? Wanton little waifs and serfs dependent on the State. Pure and simple.”
Rush on a 13 year old girl:
“Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is also a White House dog?” (Rush Limbaugh, while holding up a photograph of 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton)
Rush on exercise:
“Exercise freaks … are the ones putting stress on the health care system.”
Rush on feminism:
“Feminism has led women astray. I love the women’s movement — especially when walking behind it.”
Rush on people in the military who didn’t support the Iraq War:
“The phony soldiers.”
Rush on women:
“Women still live longer than men because their lives are easier.”
Rush on women protesting sexual harassment:
“They’re out there protesting what they actually wish would happen to them sometimes.”
Rush on the homeless population:
“Isn’t that how the homeless became homeless? They used to be institutionalized and a bunch of liberals came along and said, “They have rights! You can’t keep them there”?”
Rush on what criminals look like:
“Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?”.
I am sorry to hear he is ill.
Can everyone please knock off the ‘kapo’ and ‘nazi’ crap already?
What ever happened to agreeing to disagree?
I didnt think much of his show and thought he was often inaccurate but he has donated and raised a pile of money for charities.
Very ironic that all the leftists, those holy holy holy leftist who always tell us how we need to speak and how we need to watch what we say, when it comes time for them to put their money where their mouth is, there’s nobody home. They are the most vile and vicious and disgusting people.
What’s the proof? When Elijah Cummings died a few months ago everyone was talking so nicely and we were told how we needed to be nice about him. Not too many republican said anything bad about him, not too bad anyway. But now, all of a sudden they’re allowed to be vile vicious pieces of trash.
For the good of this country and generation, I truly wish and daven for him that he have a refua shalima – b’mhairah.
I came across Herbal HealthPoint (ww w. herbalhealthpoint. c om) two years ago and learnt about their successful COPD herbal therapy for COPD. I immediately started on the COPD treatment; few weeks into the treatment i began to notice a reduction in symptoms, after I completed the treatment, my symptoms were all gone including the severe shortness of breath, cough and wheezing. Its been over two years since treatment I feel better and breath better.